Zoe Ventoura betting on a Melbourne return

LOVED actor Zoe Ventoura isn’t fazed by her jetsetting lifestyle as she and husband Daniel MacPherson juggle marriage and work commitments around the globe. And she’s planning a Melbourne homecoming trip.

RETURNING to Melbourne is always sweet for Zoe Ventoura. After all, the decorated Los Angeles-based Aussie actor landed her first lead role 10 years ago in locally made SBS drama Kick.

It was set in Brunswick and followed the adventures of wild 20-something Miki Mavros who, after trying to make it big, was forced to move back in with her Greek-Australian parents.

That breakthrough role earned Ventoura two Logie nominations and she has gone on to star in several films and a string of acclaimed Australian-made series, including Packed to the Rafters, Hyde & Seek, Wild Boys and Love Child, as well as Underbelly Files: Chopper, due for release next year. Her film credits include this year’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales in the role of Mayor’s Wife alongside Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow.

Zoe Ventoura prepares for the races. Picture: Matt Symons/Coleman-Rayner

Next month, Ventoura will be a special guest of Lavazza in the Birdcage during the Melbourne Cup Carnival on Derby Day and Melbourne Cup Day.

“I hadn’t shot anything in Melbourne for 10 years, which seemed crazy,’’ Ventoura says of her recent stint filming Underbelly. “I’d done a couple of guest roles and things leading up to that, but my very first solid lead role was Kick and it was shot for three months in Melbourne.

“It’s crazy to me how long ago that is. I used to live in Melbourne and it was really, really cool to be back there for so long over Underbelly Files: Chopper.

“I’m really excited about the races. Until last year I hadn’t been for a couple of years because I’ve been (in LA) or I’ve been working.

Actors (front) George Houvardas, Angus McLaren, Jessica McNamee; (back) Jessica Marais, Hugh Sheridan and Zoe Ventoura promote loved Channel Seven TV series Packed To The Rafters.

“You see all the fashion start to come up and you’re like, ‘Oh gosh, it’s already that time of year’.

“The (Chopper) schedule didn’t quite allow and I didn’t get to see as many friends and family as I’d hoped to, so I get to do it again and being at the races is a lot of fun.”

Ventoura will fly in from her base in Santa Monica and is unlikely to be accompanied at Flemington by husband and fellow actor Daniel MacPherson, who is busy promoting his new series, US drama reboot Strike Back.

Ventoura and MacPherson met on the set of drama Wild Boys and, since marrying in 2015 in Noosa, have become used to spending time apart for work.

This year Ventoura filmed Love Child in Sydney and Underbelly in Melbourne, while MacPherson was at various stages based in the Middle East and Budapest while filming Strike Back.

Perth-born Ventoura says despite how it may appear, the pair has spent more time together than apart.

Actors Zoe Ventoura and Dan MacPherson at the West Hollywood hotspot EPLA celebrating Australia Day. Picture: Bella Marie Adams.

“This year’s been really busy, which has been wonderful,’’ she says. “Luckily we’ve had some great times to catch up together all over the world. I got to come home quite a bit this year and then in between I had a gap where I could go to Budapest and meet him over there while he was filming, and now he’s wrapped up and we’re back (in LA) together.

“We’ve actually had more time together than it looks. We’ve just had to do a lot of travelling to make it happen but there’s nothing to complain about, it’s been great.

“We just work around what we can and whoever can travel, travels to the other one and we just make it work. We are used to it.

“I feel like most couples with two working actors in a partnership, that’s just a reality of this business. We have a lot of friends who are in the same boat. It’s what we do.”

MacPherson, a former Neighbours star and Dancing With the Stars host, has admitted it can be tough juggling their schedules and Ventoura is reluctant to predict what’s next for the couple.

Zoe Ventoura and Daniel MacPherson in Seven's Wild Boys.

Their end-of-year plans have just been thrown out the window after she secured a role in a new indie film to be shot in LA. It means she will return Stateside straight after the races.

“It sounds like a cliche but I can’t say too much about it as it’s all very recent,’’ the 36-year-old says. “It’s a wonderful script and I’m really excited about it.”

She says her marriage comes with an understood shared passion, which makes it difficult to make plans.

“He’s never really on a break,’’ Ventoura says of MacPherson, 37. “He is doing a lot of press leading up to the launch of Strike Back and that’s about to launch in the UK and early next year in America.

“He’s had a few films coincidentally coming out at the same time. We literally can’t plan more than a week or two in advance at this stage.

“The end of our year panned out pretty nicely and then this film came up and it’s like, ‘OK, we need to rework that’. We’re really going from month to month and sometimes week to week, so we don’t really have much to say about future plans at this stage.”

Zoe Ventoura and Daniel MacPherson on their wedding day. Picture: Instagram

Ventoura uses the word “grateful” to describe her work life and she is chuffed to be regarded as an Australian acting veteran who has stood the test of time.

She also keeps in touch with Australian affairs from abroad and, along with MacPherson, has just lent her support to a new marriage equality video encouraging Australians to post their “yes” votes.

Released by US-based organisation GLAAD (the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), it also features other Australians including Hugh Sheridan, Liam Hemsworth and Yvonne Strahovski.

After making her name on Packed to the Rafters, playing Mel Rafter, Ventoura has remained a favourite of Australian viewers. Her shock on-screen death was the highest-rating episode of the hugely popular series, and she earned a nomination for a silver Logie for Most Popular Actress in 2011.

Zoe Ventoura prepares for the Spring Racing Carnival. Picture: Matt Symons/Coleman-Rayner

She has shown her versatility playing a variety of roles and she is excited for viewers to see Underbelly next year on Channel 9. It tells the story of one of Australia’s most notorious underworld figures, Mark “Chopper” Read. He is played by Aaron Jeffery, while Ventoura plays Chopper’s first wife Mary Ann.

It features an impressive line-up including Michael Caton, Ella Scott Lynch, Vince Colosimo, Todd Lasance and Debra Byrne.

“That cast, it’s a phenomenal cast,’’ Ventoura says. “I’m really excited to work with that calibre and I’m excited for everybody to see it. I think it’s going to be great.

“It’s a difficult industry to sustain, so every job I get I’m grateful for. I feel like I’m really lucky to have got the jobs I’ve gotten in the last few years because they’ve been wonderful shows. Really different casts, really different sets and really different roles, so I’m feeling really grateful.”

Zoe Ventoura will be a guest of Italian coffee house Lavazza at this year’s Melbourne Cup Carnival, on AAMI Victoria Derby Day and Emirates Melbourne Cup Day